Ecclesiastes 3:12-13: There is nothing better than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; moreover that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor – it is the gift of God. Vapor of vapors, says the preacher. All is vapor. Ecclesiastes reminds us that the world and everything in it pass away. Nothing stays put. All we accomplish is blown away like morning mist, and so are we. But Ecclesiastes is finally a book... Read more
This piece was originally published at the Credenda/Agenda web site in 2009. Being in a Grinchy mood and of a generally Grinchy disposition, I thought it worth re-presenting. Several years ago, when The Passion of the Christ was making headlines, I realized that N. T. Wright has spoiled every Jesus film. Once you’ve read Wright, you realize that none of the movies get Jesus right. Pharisees and scribes are reduced stock villains with caricatured Jewish features. Pilate has to make... Read more
At the NYRB web site, Ian Johnson summarizes the changing relations between the Chinese government and the church. He ends with this account of the Huanan church: “A decade ago, authorities in China smashed one of the world’s biggest charismatic Christian churches, the 500,000-member South China (Huanan) Church, sending its leaders to jail on charges of rape, torture and kidnapping. The actions were widely condemned as violations of religious freedom, with US-based organizations attacking the imprisonment of church leader Gong... Read more
There are more than two brands, but I’m restricting myself to two. On the one hand there are the careful, balanced assessments of some writer or a collection of writers. These aim to clarify the aims and actual opinions of thinkers of the past. They rebut misinterpretations and misconstruals. Descartes didn’t really mean that , Heidegger’s opinion on X must be seen in the context of his views on Y. This is all very useful. On the other hand are... Read more
Self-help books are easy to mock. Too easy. But this one is too hard to resist. In 2008, Thomas Nelson put out Thank You Power: Making the Science of Gratitude Work for You by Deborah Norville. I have not read the book. From the Table of Contents, it looks to be full of sane advice like “Accentuate the positive,” “Give thanks for the bad” and “Grow where you’re planted.” It’s from a Christian publisher, and I imagine that it aims... Read more
Some Christmas reflections on what it means to receive bread from heaven over at www.firstthings.com this morning. Read more
I don’t think I’ve ever known someone so humble and hungry to learn—even from his students, even from his undergrads—as Dr. Leithart. He loves the subjects he teaches in such an un-possessive way; he both cares for and respects his students enough to interact earnestly with their ideas. I’ve witnessed him approach every topic on the table for discussion—from a biblical perspective on Empire to the theological insights of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory— with the same eagerness and jollity.... Read more
In one of his Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, Volume 5 (International Kierkegaard Commentary) Kierkegaard analyzes the respond of Job to his suffering: “Job traced everything back to God; he did not detain his soul and quench his spirit with deliberation or explanations that only feed and foster doubt, even though the person suspended in them does not even notice that. The very moment everything was taken away from him, he knew it was the Lord who had taken it away, and... Read more
In her contribution to Negotiating the Gift: Pre-Modern Figurations of Exchange (Veroffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts fur Geschichte) , Beate Wagner-Hasel offers this penetrating critique of Marcel Mauss’s The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies : “Mauss indirectly completed in theoretical terms the very process of depersonalizing and reifying human relations which he himself had criticized. According to Mauss, the things themselves, to which humans were inseparably bound, originally regulated interaction. Mauss thus mystified the social context at... Read more
For various reasons, we have decided to change the name of the Trinity Institute to “Trinity House Institute for Biblical, Liturgical, and Cultural studies,” “Trinity House Institute” for short and “Trinity House” for shortest. We are getting a web page set up. Currently, the page includes only our mission statement, a copy of a recent fund-raising letter that updates our plans, and a place to sign in for updates and information. Check it out at www.trinityhouseinstitute.com . Read more
Leithart
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